The world’s first private expeditions to the Moon are expected by 2018

Ambitious excursion company, Space Adventures are aiming to send two paying passengers to the moon and back by 2018, and that is not a figure of speech. The highly-likely wealthy guest, accompanied by a Cosmonaut, will be launched into the abyss of space, flying within 62 miles of the moon’s surface, travelling around satellites and finishing with an epic selfie of themselves watching the Earth’s horizon rising before heading back home.

The mission will be the first time that humans have travelled beyond low-Earth orbit in more than 40 years! This isn’t just a ‘flight over the Northern lights’ kind of trip though, the whole duration of this insane voyage takes a total of 16 days; which includes 10 days of acclimatisation training before boarding their six day flight to the moon.

So, how much does this cost? Well, Virgin Galactic, who are also aiming to offer flights into space by 2015, charges about $250,000 per journey and supposedly Stephen Hawking, Leonardo DiCaprio, and Angelina Jolie have signed up for that sub-orbital mission. Space Adventures, who are offering a higher-orbit expedition, currently charges $50 million for a 10 day trip to the International space station let alone the six day mission to the moon. That should give you an idea of just how pricey this space odyssey will be.

But who knows, on your gap year you may come across some lost treasured in Fiji, or win a bet against some multi-millionaire gamblers in Vegas. If not, you can always buy a telescope and grab some rocks from the garden. Same thing, right?